“Leave The Gun, Take the Cannoli”: Lines from The Godfather to Use in Finance

One of my favorite films is The Godfather. I had a friend who memorized every line in the movie and would find a way to apply one to just about all of life’s situations. We would go to lunch and someone would ask about the choices, he would invariably say, “Have the veal, it’s the best in the…

Crash Dieting Doesn’t Work for Savers, Either

Deprivation diets don’t work in the long term. The same can be said for deprivation-based financial management. Eliminating all the fun things you can do with money is a surefire way to guarantee failure. In his excellent book “Mindless Eating, Why We Eat More Than We Think,” author Brian Wansink explains why most diets don’t work….

What Risk Is All About: Uncertainty

Howard Mark’s recent quarterly update to his Oaktree Clients is an investment smoothie for the brain. Reading this memo is an adrenaline shot for your mind. This comes without the unpleasant side effect of your Vitamix blasting through your kitchen like an industrial grade leaf blower. Mark’s analysis of risk is nutrition for your cerebral cortex in…

The Best Doctor Gives The Least Medicine

Even though Ben Franklin lived over 200 hundred years ago, his advice is timeless. During Franklin’s time, the medical cure often killed the patient. Too much blood letting and leech treatment led to fatal outcomes. The same can be said for hyper active portfolio management. As Morgan Housel likes to say, “99% of investing is…

Osama Bin Laden Would Have Been An Awful Investor

Osama Bin Laden’s personality traits made him a detestable human being. He most likely would have been an atrocious investor if he would have gravitated toward the field of finance instead of mass murder. Bin Laden constantly sought the reaffirmation of his crazed beliefs. This eventually sealed his fate. This is not unlike the poor…

Coach Steve Lavin Has a Process, and So Should You

“I can’t be a coach that is more concerned about the winning than the process. Even if it means at the end of the day it ends up costing you your job. It’s the way I operate.” Steve Lavin, Basketball Coach, St. John’s University This was Lavin’s response to the reaction to his suspension of…

What We Think… We Become

This quote from Buddha succinctly summarizes the all-important psychological component of investing. While the term “mental toughness” is a term more recognizable in professional sports, it is also a critical aspect of a successful investment process. In professional sports, teams get to keep their trophies. Unless you are a little league team from Chicago, championships…